FirstPort Property Management

FrugalFairy78

I’m interested to hear if others have had issues with FirstPort, particularly owners of Freehold Homes on new-ish housing estates.

We have had numerous issues with this company who now charge nearly £6000 a year to “manage” a small patch of grass in our cul-de-sac.

They also added unauthorised charges to our account for the year 2023, which, despite saying they would remove, they haven’t, a year on. Our new (and 4th or 5th designated property manger in 2 years) ignores us and their Credit Control just keep slapping admin charges on to our account and threatening debt collection agencies. Many residents have been forced to pay these charges as they are worried about debt collectors coming round. We have made numerous complaints via their correct channels and also raised this with the TPO but are worried they will just keep ignoring us and adding Admin fee’s before the TPO even respond.

We, as in the residents if our close, have collectively agreed we want to ditch them and run it ourselves; has anyone successfully done this?

The amount of negative press there is in this company, I’m surprise MSE have not covered it.

visidigi

Check your terms when you bought, it contains the process you need to go through to get rid of them. They aren't alone in being shocking, this is an area I am surprised more are complaining about, but I guess the leasehold sags keeps these 'estate management companies' out of the news as much as they should be.

wadsRtight

There's one or more large Facebook groups discussing FirstPort. This one is fairly active:

Firstport Resident's Action Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/186999621645061

wadsRtight

Yes various MPs have published open letters. No real parliamentary action is anywhere in sight though. For one, the way that property management companies play the system is just a bit too complicated for the average MP to grasp or acknowledge. Maybe none if them live in properties that are in the grip of certain giant property management companies.

Secondly, there may be a distinct correlation between the UK's look-the-other-way legislation and Britain as 'a great place to invest '.

eddddy

FrugalFairy78 said:

We have made numerous complaints via their correct channels and also raised this with the TPO but are worried they will just keep ignoring us and adding Admin fee’s before the TPO even respond.

I'm pretty certain that The Property Ombudsman doesn't get involved in Estate Management Charge disputes / service charge disputes.

TPO deals with complaints about the conduct of estate management companies - for example, if they don't reply to letters etc. And TPO can tell the company to make you a small payment as compensation for any annoyance they've caused you.

You'd need to go to the county court to get a ruling on whether an Estate Management Charge are payable.

Perhaps an approach to consider is paying the Estate Management Charges (including the Admin Charges) in full under protest - to stop further admin charges and legal fees being added to your bill. Then sue the Management Company in the county court to get the disputed management charges and the admin charges back.

FrugalFairy78

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81871947#Comment_81871947

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81872059#Comment_81872059

We have complained regarding their conduct, as they have not answered a single e-mail in 5 months. They send threatening letters for payments we do not owe, so hopefully the TPO will look into it. First Port have messed up double booking gardening contracts and are in breach of contract, but as they never answer any e-mails, you never get anywhere.

mta999

Although I agree with you that Firstport are a shambles, when I had experience of them each property was assigned a property manager and I found that although the main offices of Firstport never replied the property manager was usually pretty good at responding

Are you sure you're emailing your property manager rather than the general office?

The property manager was also contactable by phone

Maybe they gave gone downhill since then !

eddddy

FrugalFairy78 said:

We have complained regarding their conduct, as they have not answered a single e-mail in 5 months. 

So the Ombudsman might tell them to apologise to you, or might tell them to pay you £50 to £250 for the inconvenience they've caused you

FrugalFairy78 said:

They send threatening letters for payments we do not owe, so hopefully the TPO will look into it.

You say you don't owe the money, but I guess Firstport will say that you do owe the money.

So there's probably nothing the Ombudsman can do. The Ombudsman won't get involved in deciding whether you owe the money or not.

You would need to go to court to get a decision on whether the money is owed.